Peter Poggi
Forum Ride Along
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Please advise if this is not the correct place for this question. I'm curious if anyone has experienced this.
It's summer in the Washington DC area. A generally healthy 61 year old woman is shopping in a supermarket when she suddenly begins to sweat profusely; her skin becomes very flushed; Her husband drives her home and their primary physician tells them to call EMS. EMS arrives and finding her sitting upright, complaining of feeling hot, having cherry red flushed skin, her hair is soaking wet with sweat. No difficulty breathing. Patient says she feels "tingly all over her body". BP 138/88, pulse 83, blood sugar160. Past medical history includes hypertension (being treated) and hi cholesterol (also being treated). The ALS provider connects her to the monitor and sees no cardiac anamolies. She is transported to the local ER.
During transport her body temp continues to drop gradually down to 92.5 F / 33.6 C.
At the ER, the nurse cannot obtain an oral temperature on any of 3 different bedside thermometers. Bloodwork is normal. They eventually treated her with a warming blanket and her temperature slowly returns to normal. No one can explain her temperature drop.
Has anyone ever experienced a patient with an unexplained temperature drop like this?
Full disclosure: The patient is my wife. No one was able to explain why this happened. I was not an EMT at the time but have since recently passed my EMT-B, and nothing in my training addressed this situation.
It's summer in the Washington DC area. A generally healthy 61 year old woman is shopping in a supermarket when she suddenly begins to sweat profusely; her skin becomes very flushed; Her husband drives her home and their primary physician tells them to call EMS. EMS arrives and finding her sitting upright, complaining of feeling hot, having cherry red flushed skin, her hair is soaking wet with sweat. No difficulty breathing. Patient says she feels "tingly all over her body". BP 138/88, pulse 83, blood sugar160. Past medical history includes hypertension (being treated) and hi cholesterol (also being treated). The ALS provider connects her to the monitor and sees no cardiac anamolies. She is transported to the local ER.
During transport her body temp continues to drop gradually down to 92.5 F / 33.6 C.
At the ER, the nurse cannot obtain an oral temperature on any of 3 different bedside thermometers. Bloodwork is normal. They eventually treated her with a warming blanket and her temperature slowly returns to normal. No one can explain her temperature drop.
Has anyone ever experienced a patient with an unexplained temperature drop like this?
Full disclosure: The patient is my wife. No one was able to explain why this happened. I was not an EMT at the time but have since recently passed my EMT-B, and nothing in my training addressed this situation.
